A long update

I am excited that the pictures on my blog are working again! :) I don't know where to start with an update. I'm so blessed to be here. When I look around and see Liberia and a hospital ship, and the tropical fish jumping out of the ocean, and I think- wow, I'm really on Mercy Ships. God is so faithful to bring me here. "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His son, Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:9 Ah- fellowship with Jesus! For those who are not in that place yet, you are missing the most beautiful thing available to man.

I've been thinking a lot about the future, what does God have in store? This has been my vision for a long time, and now, here I am, God has brought me here and I love it. But where will he take me next?

I was able to attend an assembly of God church here in Liberia yesterday, called Zion Assembly of God. For those of you who don't know, my home church is an assembly of God church. It was soo great! I really loved being there, singing songs with them, taking communion with them. They are working on building a church building. But for now, we sat in school chairs (you know the wooden chairs with a little desk attached to one side), and the floor was sand. But they did have a keyboard, drums, and microphones so they are doing well. Anyways, the sermon was given by one of the guys here on mercy ships and it was about having Faith. And believing God, letting him lead us through our lives and trusting he will do it, and allowing the challenges and disappointments we face to bring us closer to God. We will always have the choice of allowing our challenges and trials bring us lower or they can bring us closer to God if we just draw closer to him, and the promises in the bible. It was neat to hear the testimonies of healing and prayer that were given. The people here have a great opportunity to prove God because their trials can be so great. Like for example, the speaker said when he was younger he needed to have surgery on something in the next 2 weeks or the doctor said he would die. He needed 150$ US dollars for the surgery and he didn't have the money. His pain kept getting worse and worse. And one day he remembered that his pastor had told him, "If you pray believing God will heal you, you will be healed", because of the cross and the right relationship we have with God. So he laid his hand on his stomach and started praying really hard and believing God to heal him. He prayed for 30 minutes, he prayed hard and was sweating and then he felt he should go and get some water and since he drank the water his sickness was gone, and he could eat again and his pain left him. He said how this trial had proved God to him and built up his faith. This is one of the people who now works with Mercy Ships. God still heals people today!

On Saturday, I went to the Bong Mines. Its an old iron factory in Bong County which is about halfway into Liberia, about 2-3hours by train. So we all piled into the Mercy Ships land rover and drove onto the train and parked the vehicle. The the train drives for 2-3 hours and we can climb on top of the land rover and take pictures and it was amazing!! To see the country side of Liberia- its beautiful! And just see how people are living. By the time I got back, I was covered in black soot from head to toe. And I had to throw away my clothes because they were also covered in soot. There were no bathroom facilities other than the tall grass. :)

The driver of our vehicle who works with mercy ships worked at the iron factory for 15 years. He was there when the rebels came during the war and started killing people who were from certain tribes. Wow! He showed us where he was and where the project still sits from the day they stopped during the war. He was describing a lot of the trials of the liberian people, even up until now, when most people cannot find work.

I also had some political discussions with the driver. First of all, I'm going to start saying I am from North America, not the US, because the politics of the US are so controversial! My gift is not to debate politics. Also- the United States did not intervene in Liberias war at all until the end when Liberia was pretty much already distroyed. So some liberians have some animosity toward America because of that. I don't understand it all, wars and suffering, and thankfully God has not asked me to solve the worlds problems. And he has given me grace to realize that instead of really getting sad.

I was reminded of the story of the good samaritan, in Luke 10:26-37. It talks about a Jew who was robbed and beaten and left for dead. A priest passed by and didn't help. The a levite (another Jewish person) also passed by on the other side of the road. But then a samaritan passed by. Ususally jews and samaritans don't associate with one another. And I don't understand all the reasons politically, why they didn't. But the samaritan helped the man- he bandaged his wounds, and put him on his own horse, took him to a hotel and paid for his stay in a hotel. What a great way to help us understand about breaking down cultural barriers and loving people.

So back to the bong mines, It was great, and I'm going to try and upload some pictures of Liberia. Please continue to pray for the sick kids on the ward. That we would be able to just love them and help them. This kids that have the esphogeal problems from swallowing caustic substances... they just break my heart! They are so skinny and can't swallow and have terrible coughs and feeding tubes. They need the love of God in their lives. And the poor mothers! Its hard for them to see their kids sick. Can you imagine having a colostomy in a third world country!? There are no bags to attach, you just tape some gauze the site and go on with your day!

Pray for America and the elections- a lot of the world is praying for the election in the United States!